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Fup. Store Cat.
The Trip to Kahani
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Bear
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Zooey
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"Maybe Bruno wasn't so cold and sick as he'd seemed or maybe he was just frightened," Fup tells the residents of the pet store, "but before Penny knew what was happening my uncle had led her back to the house. That was that, apparently. Their troublesome neighbor would have to make it home on his own.
"He only lived on the land bordering ours, Penny's brother insisted; he could get home if he needed help. But Penny had already thought of that. What she wanted to know, and yet somehow didn't want to know, was: why hadn't Bruno gone home already? Why had he parked himself under the shed?"
One of Cesar's nieces interrupts: "Fup, most of these kids have never seen snow or ice. Maybe you could back up a little and explain."
So Fup tells them all about winters in Maine: wet, heavy snow and dangerous freezing rain; the long succession of days staring out at the snowed-over laketop, the woods all around gone absolutely still — no birdsong or squirrel chatter for months, and after a storm sometimes no tracks in the fresh snow for days except the boots of locals who each morning cut holes in the ice and pull fish out of the water with wire.
The young fish shudder in their tanks.
"My mother told me once, 'Fup, I waited months for the thaw, wondering if Bruno had survived.'"
Up at the front of the pet store the security gate begins to slide open along its track. "Oh dear," Cesar's younger niece mumbles, "the cleaning service is early."
The older niece shouts, "Everyone back to your cages and cubicles! Back to your cages and cubicles!"
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